Yulia Tymoshenko arrested for mocking Ukraine court

Supporters clash with riot police removing opposition leader from Kiev courtroom on judge’s orders Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been arrested by police acting on a judge’s orders for violating court procedure during her trial for abuse of office. Her supporters squabbled on Friday with riot police in court, trying to prevent them from driving her away in a prison car and shouting: “Shame! Shame!” Dozens gathered outside court in Kiev and tried to block the road, but were pushed aside. The charismatic Tymoshenko has criticised the trial as a ploy by President Viktor Yanukovych to bar her from elections and mocked the court. She has refused to rise when addressing the court, as required, and routinely insulted the judge. Her supporters have repeatedly disrupted hearings. Complying with the presiding judge’s orders, police surrounded Tymoshenko and escorted her out of the courtroom. The 50-year-old opposition leader is charged with abusing her powers by signing a natural gas import contract with Russia in 2009 that prosecutors claim was disadvantageous to Ukraine. Tymoshenko insists she is innocent, arguing that the contract ended weeks of natural gas disruptions to Ukrainian and European consumers and that she was authorised to sign the deal as prime minister. Experts in Ukraine and abroad believe the trial’s real motive is to disqualify Tymoshenko from upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections by convicting her as a felon. Tymoshenko has a long and bitter history with Yanukovych. She was the central figure in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution mass protests, which threw out Yanukovych’s fraud-tainted victory in a presidential election and led to another vote that brought a pro-western government to power. Tymoshenko became prime minister, but Ukrainians grew frustrated by economic hardships, slow reforms and endless bickering in the Orange camp. As a result, she lost to Kremlin-friendly Yanukovych in the 2010 presidential election. Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko Europe guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 5, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.